Energy 215 (2021) 119177

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Rotation improvement of vertical axis wind turbine by offsetting

pitching angles and changing blade numbers
Xuejing Sun a, Jianyang Zhu b, *, Zongjin Li a, Guoxing Sun a
a
Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau S.A.R, China
b
Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: To improve the power extraction performance and self-starting characteristics of the vertical axis wind
Received 23 June 2020 turbine (VAWT), the effect of offsetting pitching angles and blade numbers on the performance of a
Received in revised form wind-induced rotation VAWT has been systematically investigated. Different from the conventional
22 October 2020
numerical and experimental approach, the rotation velocity of the turbine is driven by the aerodynamic
Accepted 26 October 2020
Available online 28 October 2020
torque of the blade in the present study. The flow around the turbine was simulated using Fluent 6.3
code, and the governing equation of the turbine’s rotation was coupled to the code through UDF. The
optimized pitching angle b was found to be of
4 , at which the maximum 5.89 and 5.14 times average
Keywords:
Offsetting pitching angle
power increasing were achieved for the turbine with 5-blades and 3-blades, respectively. Moreover,
Blade number shorter self-starting time was also observed for the turbine with b ¼
4 at larger wind velocity (>9 m/s).
Self-starting characteristic In addition, the influence of the blade number on the performance of the turbine depended on the wind
Mean power coefficient velocity. The analysis of the flow field of the turbine showed that the offsetting pitching angle and blade
Vortex separation number could suppress or delay the vortex separation, and therefore improve the overall performance of
the turbine.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to improve the performance of the S-VAWT, it is essential to delay

To harvest wind energy in the urbane environment, straight
bladed Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine (S-VAWT) is gaining
more and more attention in recent years owing to its advantages of
independent of the wind direction, friendly to the environment,
low cost, and high adaptability to unsteady turbulence flow.
However, the low efficiency and poor self-starting are the signifi-
cant challenges for further development of the S-VAWT. Thus,
improving the performance of the S-VAWT is of great importance
for energy harvest and sustainable development [1e5].
Different from horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), the angle
of attack of the S-VAWT’s blade changes frequently during the
revolution of the turbine, which makes the flow around the S-
VAWT becomes very complex, particularly, when the turbine is
working at low wind speed; vortex separation could be initiated
when the blade is at a larger angle of attack. This phenomenon is
known as dynamic stall, reducing the lift force of the blade sharply,
and deteriorating the overall performance of the turbine. Therefore,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhujy@wust.edu.cn (J. Zhu).
or eliminate the flow separation around the blade. Changing the
pitching angle is a common and feasible method to address this
problem.
Rezaeiha et al. [6] performed a numerical study to investigate
the effect of fixed offset pitching angles on the performance of a
three-blade S-VAWT. The range of the angles was set from
7
to þ3 with an interval of 1. The turbine with fixed offset pitching
angle
2 was found to be the optimum, and compared with the
turbine with non-offset pitching angle, the power coefficient was
increased by 6.6%. Guo et al. [7] employed the pitching control
method to improve the power extraction performance of a S-VAWT.
The analysis indicated that an optimal fixed offset pitching angle of
the turbine was of
1, at which a 4.5% more power coefficient was
achieved compared to the turbine without offset pitching angle.
Armstrong et al. [8] conducted an experimental study to investigate
the aerodynamic performance of a 3-blades S-VAWT with different
fixed offset pitching angle in a wind tunnel with a wind speed of
10 m/s. It was concluded that the fixed offset pitching angle could
influence the performance of the turbine significantly; if the tur-
bine has a fixed offset pitching angle at a value of
6 , the vortex
separation of the blade could be delayed, consequently, leading to

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.119177
0360-5442/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
the power coefficient of the turbine increasing. Zhang et al. [9]
analyzed the effect of the blade pitching angle on the aerodynamic
performance of a 3-blades S-VAWT by using both experimental and
numerical methods. The aerodynamic force and power coefficient
of the turbine with different fixed offset and variable pitching an-
gles were compared. It was reported that a power coefficient of
19.3% increasing was achieved by the optimized pitching angle. Li
et al. [10] proposed an optimized blade pitching control method
based on a genetic algorithm and computational fluid dynamics
simulation for an S-VAWT. It demonstrated that the optimized
blade pitches could increase the average power coefficients of the
turbine under eight different tip speed ratios by the range of
0.177e0.317, respectively.
Based on the aforementioned studies, it is concluded that the
performance of the S-VAWT can be improved significantly by
changing the pitching angle of the blade. However, most of the
aforementioned studies on the pitching angle of the S-VAWT were
set with a fixed angular velocity of the turbine, which is not accu-
rate as the rotation of the turbine induced by the wind varies with
the wind speed. Besides, to date, most conclusions of the effects of
the blade pitching angle on the S-VAWT were based on the 3-
blades S-VAWT only. Therefore, in this work, the performance of
the wind-induced rotation of S-VAWT with different fixed pitching
angles and blade numbers are analyzed. To this end, a numerical
coupling model was established and validated to simulate the
interaction between the wind flow and the induced turbine rota-
tion, and both the starting stage and steady rotation stage of the
turbine have been analyzed.
2. Physical model and parameters definition
According to the literature, three and five are the typical blade
numbers used for the S-VAWT. In this study, the effect of the blade
pitching angle on the wind-induced rotation was also evaluated
with two different blade numbers, as shown in Fig. 1.
Based on the development of bowl-shaped floating S-VAWT in
the University of Macau [11], NACA0018 is employed to represent
the section profile of the blade. The chord length is fixed at
c ¼ 0.15 m. This study focused on two dimensions analysis with the
span of the blade of 1.0 m. To reduce the initial rotation moment,
Fig. 1. Two typically S-VAWTs (a) Wind turbine with 3-blades. One extra blade is used to show force and other symbols. (b) Wind turbine with 5-blades.
2
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
the hollow section blade was adopted with sufficient wall thickness
to satisfy the strength requirement. The pitching center and mass
center of the blade coincide at the same point, which was set at c/3
from the leading edge of the NACA0018 airfoil. The mass of each
blade is 0.17 kg and the rotation radius of the turbine was fixed at
0.5 m. Hence, the initial rotation moment of the S-VAWT with 3-
blades and 5-blades are 0.1278 kg m2 and 0.2129 kg m2 respec-
tively, and the parameters related to the blade in this work are
summarized in Table 1.
As compared with the variable pitching method, the fixed offset
pitching method is a more simple and effective way to be applied
for real S-VAWT designing. Therefore, in this work, seven fixed
offset pitching angles (b, from
8 to 4 with an interval of 2 ) were
employed to explore the effect of the blade pitching angle on the
performance of the S-VAWT. The positive or negative b is deter-
mined by the right-handed spiral rule.
Continuing our previous work [12,13], the rotation of the turbine
is induced by the wind in this study. According to the Newton’s
second law, the governing equation of the wind-induced rotation of
S-VAWT is defined as:
I€
q þ Cload q_ ¼ Qwind (1)
where, I is the initial rotation moment, Cload is the external loading
coefficient, which represents the resistance resulted from the
electricity generator and the bearing friction. Once the turbine was
developed, Cload is constant, and it can be determined by the
experiment, however, in this work, for both the S-VAWT with 3-
blades and 5-blades, Cload is fixed at the value of 0.05 kg m2/s; q
is the azimuth angle; € q is the angular acceleration; q_ ¼ u is the
turbine rotation velocity; Qwind is the aerodynamic torque, which
can be calculated by:
Table 1
Parameters of the blade.
Blade shape NACA0018
Chord length c ¼ 0.15 m
Mass 0.17 kg
Mass center Distance c/3 from the leading edge of the airfoil
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

simulate the S-VAWT [14e16], is employed to solve Reynolds stress

Qwind ¼ Ft R (2) in equation(7). The SIMPLEC solution scheme is used for pressure-
velocity coupling, the first order implicit scheme is employed for
here, Ft is the tangential force, as shown in Fig. 1, and Ft is described the temporal term discretization, and the second-order upwind
as: scheme is used for pressure and momentum discretization. Fluent



 6.3 with double precision computation mode is used as the fluid
Ft sin a
cos a FL
¼ (3) field solver.
Fn cos a sin a FD
In order to solve equation (1), second-order finite difference
method [17] is employed, the angular acceleration and velocity of
where, Fn is the normal force, FL is the lift force, FD is the drag force,
the turbine at t are given as:
a is the angle of the attack. It is well know that the lift force and
drag force of the blade are determined by the angle of the attack a. tþDt t
Dt t
€t q þq
2q
Based on the relationship illustrated in Fig. 1, the angle of the attack q ¼
depends on tangential velocity uR and free stream wind speed U∞: D2 t (8)
tþDt
h cos q i t q
qt
Dt
q_ ¼
a ¼ tan
1 þb (4) 2Dt
l þ sin q
By substituting equation (8) into equation (1), we can get the
herein, l ¼ uR/U∞ is the tip speed ratio. Note that for the wind- time progressive form of azimuth angle of the turbine:
induced rotation of S-VAWT, l and u are not constant, they are
4I
2I þ Cload Dt t
Dt
varying with the azimuth angle.
qtþDt ¼ qt þ q
At last, two critical parameters to evaluate the performance of 2I þ Cload Dt 2I þ Cload Dt
the turbine are introduced: the power coefficient and mean power 2I t
Qwind
coefficient: þ D2 t (9)
2I þ Cload Dt I
Qwind u For the wind-induced rotation VAWT, equation (7) and equation
CP ¼ (5)
0:5rU∞3c
(9) have to be solved simultaneously. To this end, a coupling
method is developed, and the calculation flowchart is summarized
ðT in Fig. 2. Once the calculation is initialized, the aerodynamic torque
CP ¼ CP dt (6) Qwind over the rotation center of the turbine is integrated by solving
equation (7). Then the azimuth angle of the turbine under the
0
obtained torque at this time is calculated by equation (9), which is
herein, T ¼ 2p/u is the rotation cycle. embedded in Fluent 6.3 by using the User Defined Function (UDF)
Based on equations (1)e(5), it can be found that the power co- with C language. In the next time step, the azimuth angle of the
efficient of the turbine is dependent on angle of the attack, there- turbine is updated, which is realized by a dynamic mesh technique,
fore, fixed offset pitching angles are adjusted to produce a better and a new boundary of the wind flow field is formed. By repeating
angle of attack and maximize the mean power coefficient of the these procedures in the calculation, the wind induced rotation
turbine. VAWT starting from stationary and stopping at stable periodic
rotation is realized.

3. Methodology 3.2. Computation domain and grid generation

3.1. Method for solving wind-induced rotation S-VAWT A quadrilateral-type topology was employed for the computa-
tional domain with one outer stationary and three or five inner
Based on the free-stream wind speed U∞ ¼ 3e12 m/s and the rotation sub-domains, as shown in Fig. 3. According to the literature
chord length of the blade c ¼ 0.15 m, the Reynolds number of the [18,19], the domain is of 10D upstream, 20D downstream, and 10D
turbine (Re¼U∞c/n, n is the fluid kinematic viscosity) in this work is in up and low boundary, the numerical results are independent on
at 3.08  104 to 1.23  105, and the match number is less than 0.04. the domain sizes. Therefore, on the left side, the velocity inlet
Therefore, the fluid around the turbine is assumed as incom- boundary condition was set for a straight line located at 10D away
pressible and turbulent, the governing equations for fluid flow from the rotation center of the turbine; on the right side, the
around the S-VAWT are Unsteady Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes pressure outlet boundary condition was set for a straight line
(URANS) equation that is given as: located at 20D away from the rotation center of the turbine; the
upper and lower boundaries, both located 10D away from the
vui rotation center of the turbine, were set as the symmetry
¼0
vxi
" !#
vui v   1 vp v vui vuj v 
þ ui uj ¼
þ n þ þ
u0i u0j
vt xj r vxi xj vxj vxi xj
(7)

where u represents the velocity vector, the superscript 0 and

represent the fluctuation and mean values, i and j are the subscript,
n is the fluid kinematic viscosity, p is the pressure,
u0i u0j is the
Reynolds stress. To enclose equation (7), one equation Spalart-
Allmaras (S-A) turbulence model which has been widely used to Fig. 2. The calculation flowchart of the wind induced rotation turbine.

3
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 3. The computational domain and mesh structure.
boundaries. The blade surfaces were defined as no-slip wall
boundaries. The one outer domain was stationary, the three or five
inner domains and its surrounding blades were governed by the
turbine’s passive rotation, whereas the meshes around the blades
were not changed during the rotation.
To capture the detailed flow distribution around the blade,
fifteen structured mesh boundary layers were used around the
blade surface at both the leading and trailing edges. Based on the
NASA yþ calculator (http://www.pointwise.com/yplus/), the first
mesh cell distance from the blade was set 0.00015c, so that the yþ
was controlled to be less than 1.0.
4. Validation
The grid sensitivity study was carried out at fixed offset pitching
angles b ¼
6 and U∞ ¼ 6 m/s for a VAWT with either 3-blades or
5-blades. Three different grid modes were employed for each type
of VAWT as shown in Table 2. The induced rotation velocity versus
flow time and mean power coefficient for the two types of VAWT
with different grid modes are illustrated in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 4
(a) that both the induced rotation velocity and mean power coef-
ficient decreased with the increase of grid cells. However, the dif-
ferences of the induced rotation velocity and mean power
coefficient between the grid mode2 and grid mode3 are signifi-
cantly smaller than those between grid mode1 and grid mode3.
Table 2
Details of the grid discrete form for the VAWT.
VAWT with 3-blades grid mode1
grid mode2
grid mode3
VAWT with 5-blades grid mode4
grid mode5
grid mode6
4
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
Therefore, the solution is converged at grid mode2 of grid resolu-
tion for the VAWT with 3-blades, and it is used for the following
numerical study. For the turbine with 5-blades, as it is presented in
Fig. 4 (b), the mean power coefficient is almost identical for the
three covered grid modes; however, the differences of the curves of
the induced rotation velocity between grid mode5 and grid mode6
are significantly smaller than those between grid mode4 and grid
mode5, therefore, grid mode5 is used for the following numerical
study on the VAWT with 5-blades.
Secondly, simulations were performed with iterate time step
sizes of 7.5  10
5s, 1.5  10
4s, and 3.0  10
4s for the turbine
having either 3-blades or 5-blades to investigate the influence of
iterative time step size on the sensitivity of the computation. As
shown in Fig. 5 that the most significant difference in the mean
power coefficient is less than 1.98% and 1.21% for the turbine with
3-blades and 5-blades respectively. The induced rotation velocity
versus flow time also shows little variation between the iterate
time step sizes of 7.5  10
5s and 1.5  10
4s. Therefore, the
moderate iteration time step of 1.5  10
4s is used for the following
calculating.
Finally, the validation is performed for the developed numerical
strategy on its performance in simulation of the wind-induced
VAWT rotation. The wind-induced VAWT rotation with 3-blades
was simulated in our previous study [20]. The results were
compared to the literature data by Rainbird [21] and Asr et al. [22].
nodes on each blade surface total cells
210 57,160
420 90,834
840 145,586
210 80,838
420 132,354
840 216,198
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

Fig. 4. The induced rotation velocity versus flow time and mean power coefficient for the two types VAWT with different grid modes (a) VAWT with 3-blades (b)VAWT with 5-
blades.

Fig. 5. The induced rotation velocity versus flow time and mean power coefficient for the two types VAWT with different iterate time step sizes(a) VAWT with 3-blades (b)VAWT
with 5-blades.

The tip speed ratio versus flow time is shown in Fig. 6, where T* is numerical results reported by Asr et al. over-predicted the experi-
the time for the turbine from stationary to the steady passive ment data, while the numerical result with k-epsilon turbulence
rotation, the present numerical results with different turbulence under-predicted the data; on the other hand, the numerical result
models are also presented for comparison. It can be seen that the with Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) turbulence model agreed with the

5
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

Fig. 6. The tip speed ratio versus flow time during the startup: comparison of the present simulation data to numerical data calculated by Asr et al. [21] and experimental data
reported by Rainbird et al. [22].

experimental data very well, therefore, (S-A) turbulence model is performance of the turbine under different free stream wind, four
employed for this simulation. different wind speeds (U∞ ¼ 3, 6, 9 and 12 m/s) were considered.

5. Results and discussion 5.1. Power extraction performance

The performance of the wind-induced rotation VAWT is sys-
tematically reported in this section. The main interest of this work
is the influence of blade numbers (3-blades and 5-blades) and fixed
offset pitching angles (range from
8 to 4 with an interval of 2 )
on the performance of the turbine. In order to investigate the
5.1.1. Mean power coefficient generating
In this section, the mean power coefficient of the VAWT with 3-
blades or 5-blades were investigated as the function of free-stream
wind velocity and offsetting pitching angle. Compared with the
zero offsetting pitching angle turbine, regardless of the adopted

Fig. 7. The power extraction performance of the VAWT with different fixed offset pitching angles and free stream velocity.

6
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 8. The variation of the instantaneous passive rotation velocity and aerodynamic torque of the turbine with the azimuth position.
wind velocity, the mean power coefficient for both the turbines
with 3-blades or 5-blades was enhanced when a negative offsetting
pitching angle is applied (Fig. 7). The maximum 5.89 times increase
was achieved at U∞ ¼ 6 m/s, b ¼ -4 for the turbine with 5-blades.
Similarly, the maximum 5.14 times increase was achieved at
U∞ ¼ 9 m/s, b ¼ -4 for the turbine with 3-blades. The increase in
the mean power coefficient is significant in applying fixed off-
setting pitching angles.
Moreover, Fig. 7 also shows that the blade numbers can influ-
ence the mean power coefficient significantly. For the turbine at
low free-stream wind velocity (U∞ ¼ 3 and 6 m/s), the mean power
coefficient of the turbine with 5-blades was larger than the turbine
with 3-blades. However, when the free-stream wind velocity is
higher (U∞ ¼ 9 and 12 m/s), the results are opposite. It is interesting
to note that even for the turbine with 5-blades, no matter the wind
velocity is, the optimized fixed offset pitching angle was fixed at a
value of b ¼ -4 , for the turbine has 3-blades, the optimized fixed
offsetting pitching angle was varying with the wind velocity. The
optimized fixed offsetting pitching angle initially increases with the
wind velocity increase, then stabilized at a value of b ¼ -4 . This
implies that when the free-stream wind velocity is low, the turbine
with 5-blades is more suitable.
5.1.2. Effect of fixed offsetting pitching angle
In order to explore the relationship between the mean power
coefficient and the negative fixed offsetting pitching angle, the
variation of the instantaneous passive rotation velocity and aero-
dynamic torque of the turbine with the azimuth position are
examined in Fig. 8, where the case of the turbine with maximum
7
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
increased mean power coefficient (U∞ ¼ 6 m/s, b ¼ -4 for the
turbine with 5-blades, U∞ ¼ 9 m/s, b ¼ -4 for the turbine with 3-
blades) and the zero offsetting pitching angle turbine are
compared.
For the turbine with 3-blades, the passive rotation velocity of
the turbine with b of
4 has larger value than the turbine with b of
0 (Fig. 8). There is a phase difference for the aerodynamic torque of
the turbine with different offsetting pitching angle. Compared to
the turbine with b ¼ 0 , the torque of the turbine with a negative
offsetting pitching angle is lagged to achieve minimum or
maximum amplitude. Moreover, the turbine with b ¼ -4 has a
larger positive torque amplitude. This can explain the negative
offsetting pitching angle having a higher mean power coefficient.
For the turbine with 5-blades, as shown in Fig. 8 (b), a similar
phenomenon with the turbine with 3-blades can be observed: the
passive rotation velocity of the turbine with b ¼ -4 had larger value
than the turbine with b ¼ 0 , and the torque of the turbine with
negative offsetting pitching angle was delayed to arrive the mini-
mum or maximum amplitude. However, the turbine with b ¼ -4
had positive aerodynamic torque during the whole rotation cycle,
and it also had larger mean torque, which results in a higher mean
power coefficient for the turbine with a negative offsetting pitching
angle.
According to equations (2)e(5), the aerodynamic torque of the
turbine is determined by the lift force of the blade, which is sub-
jected to the angle of the attack. Fig. 9 shows the instantaneous
angle of the attack for a single blade with the azimuth position.
Obviously, for the turbine with 3-blades, the effect of b on the a
depends on the U∞. When the U∞ is 6 m/s, the turbine with b ¼
4
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 9. The variation of the instantaneous angle of the attack for a single blade with the azimuth position.
had a slightly larger positive and smaller negative amplitude of the
a than the turbine with b ¼ 0 . For two turbines under investiga-
tion, both peak a values closed to 90 , which indicates that both of
turbines were under the deep dynamic stall. On the other hand,
when the U∞ is 9 m/s the turbine with b ¼
4 has a smaller
amplitude of the a than the turbine with b ¼ 0 , the peak a of the
turbine with b ¼ 0 was close to 90 , while the peak a of the turbine
with b ¼
4 closed to 25 indicating that the turbine with b ¼
4
was working out of dynamic stall angle (near 15 for NACA0018
airfoil) for most of the rotation cycle, which is the reason for the
turbine to have better power extraction performance. For the tur-
bine with 5-blades, a similar effects were observed when the tur-
bine was at,U∞ ¼ 6 m/s, the amplitude of the a of the turbine with
b ¼ 0 has lager value than the turbine with b ¼
4 . Moreover, the
peak a of the turbine with b ¼ 0 closed to 90 , which indicates that
the turbine with b ¼ 0 is under the deep dynamic stall, while the
peak a of the turbine with b ¼
4 was close to 25 ; when the U∞ of
the turbine was 9 m/s. The turbine with b ¼
4 has a slightly larger
positive and smaller negative amplitude of the a than the turbine
with b ¼ 0 , and the positive amplitude of the a of the turbine with
b ¼
4 is closer to the stall angle, which is the reason for the
turbine to extract more power at this condition.
Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show the contours of vorticity magnitude and
static pressure of the turbines. Due to the symmetry of the turbine
rotation, for the turbine with 3-blades, only the turbine at q ¼ 0 ,
30 , 60 and 90 were considered, and for the turbine with 5-
8
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
blades, only the turbine at q ¼ 0 , 18 , 36 and 54 were investi-
gated. It is clear in these figures that the fixed offsetting pitching
angle could influence the flow around the turbine significantly.
Obviously, separated vortex was observed around the turbine with
b ¼ 0 , which resulted in a smaller pressure difference between the
pressure and suction surface of the blade (as shown in the first line
of Figs. 10(b) and Fig.11(b)), and led to a smaller aerodynamic force
of the blade. However, for the turbine with b ¼
4 , almost for the
whole rotation cycle, the generated vortex was attached to the
blade surface, which generated a larger pressure difference be-
tween the pressure and suction surface of the blade (as shown in
the second line of Figs. 10(b) and Fig.11(b)), and resulted in a larger
aerodynamic force of the blade. From these analyses, it is suggested
that the fixed offsetting pitching angle could suppress the vortex
separation from the blade surface, which is the reason for the
turbine with a negative fixed offsetting pitching angle having better
power extraction performance.
5.1.3. Effect of blade numbers
As mentioned in section 5.1.1, the mean power coefficient of the
turbine is different with the changing of blade number and free
stream wind velocity. When the wind velocity is low, no matter
what fixed offsetting pitching angle is, the turbine with 5-blades
has a larger mean power coefficient than the turbine with 3-
blades. When the wind velocity is high, regardless of the off-
setting pitching angle, the turbine with 3-blades has a larger mean
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 10. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the 3-blades turbine with b ¼ 0 and b ¼
4 during a rotation cycle (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static pressure.
power coefficient than the turbine with 5-blades. Therefore, in this
section, the cases of the turbine with b ¼
4 at U∞ ¼ 6 and 12 m/s
were investigated in detail to explore how the blade numbers in-
fluence the power extraction of the turbine.
Fig. 12 illustrates the variation of the instantaneous passive
rotation velocity and aerodynamic torque with the azimuth posi-
tion for the turbine with 3-blades or 5-blades at b ¼
4 , U∞ ¼ 6
and 12 m/s. Compared with the turbine with 3-blades, the turbine
with 5-blades had a larger passive rotation velocity in the whole
9
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
rotation cycle, and it generated smoother and larger mean aero-
dynamic torque (Fig. 12(a)). Moreover, in the whole rotation cycle,
the turbine with 5-blades had positive aerodynamic torque, while
negative aerodynamic torque was observed for the turbine with 3-
blades. These results make the turbine with 5-blades to have a
better power extraction performance when the wind velocity is low
(U∞ ¼ 6 m/s). On the other hand, when the wind velocity is
high(U∞ ¼ 12 m/s), compared to the turbine with 5-blades, the
turbine with 3-blades had a larger passive rotation velocity for the
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 11. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the 5-blades turbine with b ¼ 0 and b ¼
4 during a rotation cycle (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static pressure.
whole rotation cycle, although almost identical mean aerodynamic
torque was generated for the two considered turbine, which
resulted in the turbine with 3-blades to have a larger mean power
coefficient.
Fig. 13 plots the instantaneous angle of the attack for a single
blade with the azimuth position for the above discussed turbine.
The amplitude of the a of the turbine with 3-blades had lager value
than the turbine with 5-blades when the wind velocity was at
U∞ ¼ 6 m/s, and the peak a of the turbine 3-blades was close to the
value of 90 , which indicates that the turbine with 3-blades is
10
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
under the deep dynamic stall. This is the reason for the sharply
changing aerodynamic torque generating for the turbine with 3-
blades. On the other hand, when the wind velocity was at
U∞ ¼ 12 m/s; similarly, the variation trend of a with azimuth po-
sition was observed for the turbine with 3-blades or 5-blades,
however, the peak a of the turbine with 5-blades was slightly larger
than the turbine with 3-blades, which is the reason for the two
turbines to generate almost identical mean aerodynamic torque as
shown in Fig. 12 (b).
Fig. 14 and Fig. 15 show the contours of the vorticity magnitude
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

Fig. 12. The variation of the instantaneous passive rotation velocity and aerodynamic torque of the turbine with the azimuth position.

Fig. 13. The variation of the instantaneous angle of the attack for a single blade with the azimuth position.

of the turbines. Again, for the turbine with 3-blades, only the tur-
bine at q ¼ 0 , 30 , 60 and 90 were considered, and for the turbine
with 5-blades, only the turbine at q ¼ 0 , 18 , 36 and 54 were
examined due to the symmetry. It is concluded from Fig. 14 that
when the wind velocity is low, except the fixed pitching angle, the
blade numbers also can suppress the vortex separation from the
blade surface. However, when the wind velocity is larger, the more
the blade numbers of the turbine had, the more the complicated
vortex around the turbine was. For the turbine with 5-blades, the
separated vortex of the adjacent blade could interact with each
other, which is the reason for the turbine with 5-blades to deteri-
orate power extraction performance.

11
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

Fig. 14. The contours of vorticity magnitude the turbine with different blade numbers during a rotation cycle at U∞ ¼ 6 m/s (a) turbine with 3-blades (b) turbine with 5-blades.

Fig. 15. The contours of vorticity magnitude the turbine with different blade numbers during a rotation cycle at U∞ ¼ 12 m/s (a) turbine with 3-blades (b) turbine with 5-blades.

12
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al. Energy 215 (2021) 119177

Fig. 16. The variation of the instantaneous passive rotation velocity with flow time.

Fig. 17. The variation of the instantaneous aerodynamic torque with flow time for the turbine with 3-blade.

Fig. 18. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the 3-blades turbine with b ¼ 0 and b ¼
4 at U∞ ¼ 3 m/s and t ¼ 3s (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static pressure.

5.2. Self-starting performance
5.2.1. Self-starting time
To date, the capacity of the self-starting of the VAWT is not well
defined [23,24]. In this work, the same as our previous study [20],
the turbine is considered to have self-starting capacity when the
13
turbine can reach steady passive rotation without external activa-
tion. The self-starting performance of the turbine is evaluated by
the time of the turbine from initial static to the steady passive cycle
rotation (self-starting time). Based on this definition, the covered
turbine in this work all can be self-starting; however, the self-
starting time is different for the turbine with different fixed
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 19. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the 3-blades turbine with b ¼ 0 and b ¼
4 at U∞ ¼ 12 m/s and t ¼ 3s (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static pressure.
Fig. 20. The variation of the instantaneous aerodynamic torque with flow time for the turbine with different blade numbers.
offsetting pitching angles and blade numbers.
As stated in section 5.1, applying the negative fixed offsetting
pitching angle could enhance the power extraction performance of
the turbine, and the optimized b was
4 for the turbine with 5-
blades and the turbine with 3-blades when the wind velocity is
high. Therefore, in this section, the self-starting performance is
investigated for the turbine with b ¼ 0 and b ¼
4 at
U∞ ¼ 3e12 m/s.
Fig. 16 shows the variation of the instantaneous passive rotation
velocity with the flow time of the covered turbine in this section. It
is concluded from this figure that when the wind velocity was at 3
and 6 m/s, for all the covered turbines, the self-starting time almost
had identical value, which indicates that the fixed offsetting
pitching angle and blade number influence the self-starting per-
formance of the turbine slightly. However, when the wind velocity
was at 9 and 12 m/s, both the blade number and fixed offsetting
pitching angle could influence the self-starting time significantly.
The turbine with 5-blades had less self-starting time than that of
the turbine with 3-blades, and the turbine with a negative fixed
offsetting pitching angle had less self-starting time than the turbine
with zero fixed offsetting pitching angle. This conclusion indicates
that when the wind velocity is low, the turbine with 3-blades and
5-blades almost have identical self-starting performance, on the
other hand when the wind velocity is high, the turbine with 5-
blade and applied negative fixed offsetting pitching angle has a
better self-starting performance.
5.2.2. Effect of fixed offsetting pitching angle
To explore the effect of fixed offsetting pitching angle on the
self-starting performance of the turbine in detail, the cases of the 3-
blades turbine with b ¼ 0 and
4 at U∞ ¼ 3 and 12 m/s are
14
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
selected for instance.
Fig. 17 illustrates the instantaneous aerodynamic torque with
the flow time of the covered turbine in this section. It is evident in
Fig. 17 (a) that when the wind velocity was at 3 m/s, during the self-
starting process (when the rotation velocity does not reach steady
cycle, t < 3.0s), the turbine with b ¼ 0 and
4 almost had identical
aerodynamic torque. This is the reason for the two turbines had
almost an identical self-starting time, as shown in Fig. 16 (a). On the
other hand, as shown in Fig. 17 (b) that during the self-starting
process (t < 3s), the turbine with b ¼
4 had larger aero-
dynamic torque than the turbine with b ¼ 0 , which resulted in the
turbine with b ¼
4 to have a larger rotation acceleration. This also
can explain the turbine had smaller self-starting times as shown in
Fig. 16 (d).
Fig. 18 and Fig. 19 plot the contours of vorticity magnitude and
static pressure of the turbines as conducted in this section at t ¼ 3s.
For the covered turbines, almost identical vorticity and static
pressure were generated when the wind velocity was at 3 m/s,
which indicates that the self-starting performance is influenced
slightly by the fixed offsetting pitching angle at this condition.
However, when the wind velocity was at 12 m/s, the fixed offsetting
pitching angle can suppress the vortex shedding from the blade
surface, which caused a larger pressure difference around the blade
of the turbine with applying negative offsetting pitching angle, and
induced a larger acceleration. This is the reason for the turbine with
b ¼
4 has better self-starting performance at 12 m/s.
5.2.3. Effect of blade numbers
To explore the effect of the blade number on the self-starting
performance of the turbine in detail, the cases of the turbine with
b ¼
4 at U∞ ¼ 3 and 9 m/s are selected for instance.
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
Fig. 21. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the turbine with different blade number at b ¼
4 , U∞ ¼ 3 m/s and t ¼ 4s (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static
pressure.
Fig. 22. The contours of vorticity magnitude and static pressure of the turbine with different blade number at b ¼
4 , U∞ ¼ 9 m/s and t ¼ 4s (a) vorticity magnitude (b) static
pressure.
Fig. 20 illustrates the instantaneous aerodynamic torque with
the flow time of the covered turbine in this section. It is found in
Fig. 20 (a) that when the wind velocity was at 3 m/s, during the self-
starting process (t < 10.0s), the turbine with 3-blades and 5-blades
almost had identical aerodynamic torque. This is the reason for the
two turbines to have almost identical self-starting times. On the
other hand, it can be seen from Fig. 20 (b) that during the self-
starting process (t < 6.0s, especially during 1s < t < 3s), the tur-
bine with 5-blades had larger aerodynamic torque than the turbine
with 3-blades, which led to the turbine with 5-blades to have a
larger rotation acceleration. This s explains a smaller self-starting
time of the turbine, as shown in Fig. 16 (d).
Fig. 21 and Fig. 22 plot the contours of vorticity magnitude and
static pressure of the turbines, as discussed in this section at
t ¼ 4.0s. A similar vortex structure was observed around the turbine
with 3-blades or 5-blades (Fig. 21).Increasing the blade number of
the turbine could delay the vortex shedding from the blade surface,
as shown in Fig. 22, which induced a longer time of the larger
pressure difference between the pressure and suction surface of the
blade, and led to a larger acceleration of the turbine with more
blades.
6. Conclusions
The advantages of applying for fixed offsetting pitching angle
and changing blade number in VAWT were demonstrated in this
work. A numerical method based on unsteady Navier-Stokes
equations and Newton’s second law was established and vali-
dated to accurately simulate flow around the turbine. Seven
different offsetting pitching angles and two different blade
15
Energy 215 (2021) 119177
numbers of the VAWT were investigated. The main conclusions of
this work are summarized as:
1) The power extraction performance: maximum 5.89 and 5.14
times of increase in average power coefficients were achieved
for the turbine with 5-blades and 3-blades, respectively, at an
offsetting pitching angle of b ¼
4 comparing with a turbine
with zero offsetting pitching angle. The effect of the blade
number on the power extraction was subject to the free-stream
wind velocity. For the negative offsetting pitching angle, the
turbine with 5-blades had larger mean power coefficient than
the turbine with 3-blades at low wind velocity(U∞<6 m/s),
while at high wind velocity(U∞>9 m/s), the turbine with 3-
blades had larger mean power coefficient.
2) The self-starting characteristics: At low wind velocity(U∞<6 m/
s), the self-starting time of the turbine was almost identical,
which indicated that the offsetting pitching angle and blade
number had little effect on the self-starting characteristics.
While at high wind velocity(U∞>9 m/s), the turbine with more
blade and an applying b ¼
4 had a smaller self-starting period.
3) The flow structure around the turbine: For a turbine with
appropriate offsetting pitching angle (b ¼
4 ) and blade
number (5-blades), the vortex around the blade surface could be
suppressed or delayed, which results in a longer period of a
larger pressure difference between the pressure and suction
surface of the blade, leading to higher mean power coefficient
and acceleration.
4) All in all, the turbine with 5-blades and applying offsetting
pitching angle (b ¼
4 ) is beneficial to the recently developed
prototype of VAWT with liquid lifting force in Macau [17].
X. Sun, J. Zhu, Z. Li et al.
It should be pointed out that comparing with changing blade
numbers, variance of offsetting pitching angle can influence the
performance of the turbine more significantly. In the future works,
the performance of the turbine with 5-blades applying variable
changing offsetting pitching angle will be analyzed.
Credit author statement
Xuejing Sun: Modelling and simulation, Calculations, writing.
Jianyang Zhu: Conceptualization and writing. Zongjin Li:
Conceptualization and revision. Guoxing Sun: discussions, writing
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by The National Key R&D Program of
China (File no. 2019YFB1600700); The Science and Technology
Development Fund, Macau SAR (File no. 0083/2018/A2); Multi-Year
Research Grant (File no. MYRG2019-00135-IAPME), Research &
Development Grant for Chair Professor (File no. CPG2020-00002-
IAPME), and Start-up Research Grant (File no. SRG2017-00093-
IAPME) from University of Macau.
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